Hi new team captain here this is my first year in FRC and the first year of everyone on the team even our mentors and teacher so we don’t have a clue what we are doing we inherited an old number with a disorganized and trashed shop laptop currently in IT (waiting for those to come back) and lots of old robotics parts assemblies and chassis what should we even start with we do have a kit bot and old electronics.
Start with a call for help…
@jjsessa @fmcginnis do you know of anyone in the area that can provide in-person mentoring?
Now that that’s out of the way, assemble the Kitbot.
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We have a complete chassis from seasons prior with electronics all contected so we might just test that first.
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No we might reach out to 4414 we have reached out and have been helped by 6934 and Metal jackets and Tri ton
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4414 was the first ping I sent out. The second was the most current person I know of being the Senior Mentor in your area. I’m the wrong side of the fires to help in person, currently, or I’d be making arrangements to see if it was feasible to head up.
A couple of questions: what sort of chassis is it that you have? What sort of general programming/building background and tools do you have? What specifically do you think you’ll need help with?
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We are using the AM kit bot Chassis and we have a new one from this year we seem to have remnants of multiple AM kit bot Chassis we don’t have a programming background at all but we seem to stick to Java as that is the one most commonly used in our area where we can go quickly get help from our shop is heavily disorganized with stuff missing, misplaced, or straight stolen from before we took over so we don’t know what we have that’s gonna be our main goal regarding this season.
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That makes some sense; y’all shut down as a team before swerve became the meta. (Your team’s TBA page, for reference. Swerve became the Drive of Choice in about 2022.) There’s probably about 3-4 AM chassis kits around not counting this year’s, under various robots. If you follow the link you’ll be able to guess which one is which.
I would GUESS the robot you’re looking to fire up is a partially complete 2020 robot. You’ll need the electronics from it, or I miss my guess, at least to start with. (There’s upgrades for most of those available, but let’s not confuse things–except you will need to update the firmware on a bunch of stuff.)
Programming–you need help, no question; I’m not a programmer but someone should be digging up WPILib pretty quick and starting to dig through the documentation for that. You’ve been linked to the radio stuff so start looking at that documentation as well.
Mechanical: What tools do you have and know how to use, at least that you know about right now? Same question for electrical, actually.
All right, so now I’m going to deliver some “bad news”: Essentially, I think you’re in a position where your single best option right now is the Kitbot, at least until Everybot comes out. Start by getting your drivetrain together; don’t worry about the upper section yet. For electronics, keep those on the robot you have FOR NOW but identify what you need to grab for this robot. Try to get that robot running if you can (with your programmers).
I’m going to assume that you currently don’t have much of a budget, just the nature of things. If you do, there’s some things that I think you can get that will be a near-instant upgrade, BUT! they aren’t required.
By the way: your situation is NOT hopeless! I’ve seen MUCH worse. You’ve got help, and hopefully more help is coming. You’re going to learn to swim by jumping in the deep end, unfortunately, but I think we’ll be able to get you doing some laps by the end of this. (I swear, if I could get up there…)
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Thank you we have a total budget of 15k. People iss currently a problem we have and we do have a new AM14U6 with either no gearboxes or gearboxes without motors I don’t remember I’ll have to check back tomorrow and we do have an older whole chassis with the Ctre electronics with mostly everything we seem to only have CIM motors and talon srx motor control and a robo rio 1 with a PDP 1 that was created in 2021 with the little documentation I found through some online research and I think we have 4 chassis frames 1 complete chassis some kind of elevator only frame and the new AM14U6 chassis from the kit bot along with the tote I’ve been looking into Ri3d so we’re are in between a toss-up of arm vs elevator shooter.
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Mechanically I have no idea what we have all the tools are disorganized or lost/missing we have a drill or impact driver I can’t tell which we do have a plethora of working and usable machines such as a laser cutter, 3d printers bambu, TM1P Haas machine, and a couple of mills, lathes, band saw, and table drill.
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That’s a good solid set of good news, as long as you know how to use the tools. And the budget isn’t bad–not great, but not bad. (I’d suggest some offseason fundraising, if possible.)
I’m going to assume that the PDP’s date is firmware, which tracks with the team’s last recorded season (the lost/remote season). Just in time for the last of the students on that team to have graduated, too. (Of course, if you knew who they were… and they have siblings at the school now… well I think you can figure out where I’m going with that. Could be a big help if their memory works.)
Elevator-only frame: smart money says 2019 or maybe 2018. See if it’s a COTS elevator; if it is, scavenge it, that’s free elevator hardware. (Maybe figure out how it works first…) If you can get an extra level or two, that’s awesome. Also see if there’s a claw around that looks just a little too small for the Algae, that goes with it.
Whole older chassis is most likely 2020/2021. Probably won’t help a lot right now other than drive practice and parts.
Quick-and-dirty upgrade: You want 4x brushless motor/controller combos plus spares. That’ll run you around $1200. I would say to get the Kraken x60, but those aren’t going to be shipping for about a month, so get the Vortex instead* (and make sure you include the Flex motor controller and the 8mm shaft). Again, get 4 of them plus a couple of spares; you’ll use these instead of CIMs in your drivetrain. Get Krakens later and use the Vortex on the superstructure, if you’ve still got budget–$15K is going to disappear quickly. By the way, I would regard this as a mandatory upgrade to the kit drivetrain**. CIMs aren’t quite powerful enough anymore, at least in the drive. 
Robot design: Ri3D, Kitbot, Everybot. Also keep an eye on REV ION - REV ION FRC Starter Bot - Page 1 - REV Robotics and https://wcproducts.com/ for their starter robot/competitive concept designs. Don’t bite off too much–as noted, I think you’re best off targeting a Kitbot or Everybot, given your experience level–but do try to upgrade the Kitbot a bit. Don’t go crazy, your competition is in 8 weeks. Keep it simple if you can do that.
What I’m going to tell you next is that you are not going to want to do swerve. No way, no how, not now. You’re still trying to get your feet under you and get this team moving again; swerve isn’t going to be your friend to do that. THIS season, that is! Save some money and buy a set of swerve modules at the end of the season so you can get it working over the offseason***.
Second priority once you’ve got a drivetrain moving: Fit it for bumpers. Your old bumpers, if you have them, are likely still going to be legal, if worn out a bit–except that you’ll need to fill the gaps–but double-check that. Those things take more time than you think to do right.
*I’d love to say wait for the Krakens. But in this case, time isn’t your friend–the more time you have to work with the motors, the more likely they are to actually work. So it’s worth getting the Vortex, learning how those work, then getting Krakens later if budget allows.
**It’s not against the rules to use CIMs. It’s just that you’re likely to get pushed around a bit if that’s what you have; I’m trying to get you to be able to push back and have a fighting chance against the other robots’ 4-brushless drivetrains.
***Speaking of offseasons, that’s the other reason to talk to 4414. Tidal Tumble is typically in mid-October at the Ventura Fairgrounds. Improve the robot to recruit new members and show up for some fun.
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At a minimum, I’d say make sure you can locate allen wrenches, wrenches, a hammer/mallet, a saw, and some small cutting tools (like for cutting zip ties). Other things are nice to have, and there’s definitely other things you need, but that’s probably the minimum for now and you can make progress on organizing what you have and figuring out what you’re missing.
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The Haas machine seems super nice (it is a $40k CNC machine after all), but I would be wary of using it this year. Now is the time to use the manual machines, fabworks, or anything you need to get a robot fielded. The offseason is a great time to train a few people on how to use the Haas.
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cross posting this as it is DIRECTLY applicable:
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Thank you so much for the help um to answer some questions real quick. 1 no I don’t know who the previous members were nor if anyone I know knows who they were I have a picture from the old team’s instagram but not veey helpful. 2 I am currently looking at cranberry alarm ri3d to be the main inspriation or templete to create our mechanism and we have a deep cage climber from Rust hound ri3d that is really simple and space efficent. 3 Tmr I’ll post some pictures of what we have and the state of things to get a better picture for yall what I am dealing with at the moment I will look into the advice yall gave and see what can be done with said budget or just go diving into the mess trying to find whats left.
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Just want to add here, if you are having a hard time with anything, (programming, mechanical, organization, you name it), I would be more than happy to lend a hand! My team is in Newbury Park so we’re pretty local. You can just PM me (I’m a student) or @ me anywhere. If there’s anything I can do to help, I would be happy to do it!
Hi I’m a mentor from 7323 TriTron, I see lots of great replies here from others, so I’m not sure what I can add. I’m not sure if our head mentor already spoke to your team, maybe he did since you mentioned us. If there’s any way I or my team can help, don’t hesitate to contact us! We might be busy with our own build season but we’re always glad to help.
Oh hi nice to see you again sure If I come upon some problems I’ll ask you guys thanks
I believe my teacher has been talk to yours about some stuff not sure what though.
You are in good hands with Eric’s advice. Definitely hit up your local teams, as the community is super good with pitching in to help folks get off the ground. We’re a little farther away (southern LA area), but most of us mentors and students from 2637 are happy to help however we can.
I’ll also reach out to my friend who mentors 4711, a little closer to you guys in Camarillo. He may be able to help a bit too!
It is still possible to build a capable robot with relatively simple parts and tools. Sure, it may be no Einstein captain machine, but just having a reliable drivetrain and (low) scoring auto is really good for a second pick, especially in early weeks. Keep it simple and get everyone spun back up to FRC!
I’ll see if we can get at least some elec/programming stuff sent your way.
Just getting a robot back on the field after years off is a big challenge - but you guys are gonna do great.
See you at Ventura!
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